Uganda is a country not averse to controversy. For example it has biggest number of MPs, administrative units, biggest Cabinet, biggest team of Advisors, the list is endless, etc. All this is corruption and patronage. Corruption is now endemic, widespread, embedded, and intertwined within the fabric of governance and society. Corruption is condoned, institutionalized, normalized, and acceptable, and committing it does it with impunity so long as you rent your relentless support and loyalty to the Party leadership.
The way corruption is being held by the government makes it look mediocre. Ugandans standing up against corruption should be treated with dignity because they are the power. These are citizens who vote not family grand children,” Basukulu”. During the war before the capture of power, there was breaking into Banks by the NRA which they called confiscation. That was the genesis of corruption. It set a bad precedent, like it or not though the late RDC of greater Mbale by then SDA, Victor Bwana, RIP, argued that in some cases, it was justifiable because of war conditions. But again NRM has gone further by abandoning its basics from being a people’s movement to being an anti-people movement. NRM/UPDF/Police have instead resorted to using appalling coercive brutal force to deny its people the space and right of freedom to dissent.
We all can’t think the same, this is a natural phenomenon. My NRM today is drifting away from its origins and slowly adopting the North Korean style of governance. NRM is fighting it’s fundamentals it ushered in after the bloody revolution. People overwhelmingly joined the revolution because of the pro-people ideals and values that NRM cherishes and espouses, among them, was giving the people back their freedom, which meant respecting conceptual human rights like freedom to associate, the right to express, to opinion, right to life and liberty against torture and coercion.
NRM fought for democracy and caused a fundamental change, and the other ideal that prompted the young citizens into going to Luwero was fighting corruption. The two are bastions for good governance because they are safeguards for democracy, accountability, and good governance. What has gone wrong for a popular NRM to turn against itself? The gap between NRM leadership and the masses is steadily widening and soon it can result in anarchy. How safe will NRM leadership be if it continues opting for brutal repressive methods? What has made the NRM leadership become arrogant and intolerant to criticism and dissenting voices? Is NRM becoming autocratic?
Foreign funding has always been around both in government and private sectors, the investor’s money is foreign funding. Money for development is foreign-funded. Even the Government thrives on foreign aid. Therefore, receiving outside help from friends, and development partners is not new and not an eligibility. I do not see it criminal for foreigners to support those trying to free themselves and expose the endemic graft that is crippling the economy and the country where internally we have failed. I do not see any difference between the youth in Kampala with those in Nairobi, Abuja, or Dhaka, their grievances are almost similar. Ugandans have a right to stand up against any form of bad governance so long as it is done peacefully under the watch and guidance of the Police to allow people to exercise their rights, the government must stop protecting the corrupt and deny corruption at any level without fear or favor. The people have the power to determine their destiny. The power lies with the people and have to be appreciated not scorned at.
There is a political wave sweeping across the globe demanding political change by the youth, and in Africa it is known as the Pan African Youth Movement. It is anonymous, and its signature anonymity. Their strategy is to avoid being directly targeted and their leaders incarcerated making them leaderless, party less, colourless and amorphous. These you people have realised that they have numbers. Even when President Museveni started his his revolutionary and liberation activities, he was a young man. Being a youth are prime times for any human being and are the most productive times for them. Therefore, he shouldn’t ignore them. Its a delicate balancing. Again these guys are not simply and merely “Basukuku”, they are citizens who can vote. We should look out for an outlet to encourage harmony. And this is dialogue.
Protests, uprisings, and riots are always caused by anger and are vented through demonstrations. Such demonstrations erupt as a result of simmering anger and frustrations when people’s rights are stifled and outbursts can be spontaneous and volcanic. The best solution is to address the inadequacies within the government and the demands of the protestors, can be done by listening to them through dialogue. Our situation here shows fascism forming at the hands of the security forces making them appear as if they are superior to people power, the very people who pay their salaries. Is it just being disrespectful of the law or a deliberate ignore of the rule of law within the ranks of government institutions such as the UPDF that always intervenes to repress lawful demonstrations and disregards the law that provides that UPDF is supposed to be subordinate to civilian authority and when its cardinal role is to the people and their property? This has become monotonous and a pattern of repression to always call the army in situations deemed to be handled by the Police which is professionally trained to handle a civil situation. Why the panic? You can not intimidate an hungry and angry person become timid. Repression means being militaristic or coercive. Can resorting to repressive approaches or methods by pointing guns at patriotic, peaceful people be the best alternative to solve situations? Stop investing in coercive equipment instead create job opportunities.
A pro-people Army or Police will always allow people to exercise and fight for their fundamental human rights, especially the fight against economic saboteurs and looters.
Unfortunately, the President categorizes and classes the thieves into sections, those thieving by accident and those who are thieves. And these can be given an amnesty and can be forgiven so long as they do not invest the stolen money outside the country. Such a numb altitude and disregard of the laws and regulations on fighting corruption does not only frustrates those with the will to fight corruption but also at the same time it may send a green light to the thieves that they can enjoy protection from the President. In such a situatuation, handling the fight against corruption in biased and selective manner, makes my NRM look and appear ugly and a mediocrity. Justice must be blind all, it should not cover friends, relatives but can provide an amnesty and forgiveness only after a sentenced by a court of law and serving the sentence .
Militarism on civilians
Why should the government always resort to bringing Armoured Personal Carriers, APC’s, and other war weapons against peaceful citizens who are civil and have genuine grievances afflicting them? This is shameful. Manhandling a lone peaceful protestor with a just poster, is also shameful. These citizens were out to join the President’s call to fight corruption. They responded to his call but unfortunately, the President’s stand on corruption is transactional, unclear and contradictory by allowing the Police and Army to fight people who have come out to demonstrate against a deadly vice, corruption.
For more emphasis, again corruption is not new in Uganda. It is now endemic and cancerous. This time, what we have realized is that this is a new breed of demonstrators involved in these anti-corruption demonstrations, you will see that these are people who have gone to school. I saw lawyers, journalists, teachers, doctors, etc. This time the ones they usually call the “riff ruffs” like boda bodas, taxi touts, idlers, prostitutes, jobless, crooks, pick pockets, goons, etc, were not involved. Imagine next time what will happen when the two classes of people come to together, with continued this repression? Do not be mistaken, these are the future middle class. I can see that the youth have started to conquer fear and intimidation. It is a big development in the country because normally demonstrations were left for those called goons, fear had always made them withdrawn from confronting injustice and this has been a big challenge and a weakness within the society to stand up and fight for their rights. Because the citizens have been pushed against the wall, they are now fighting back. This is happening in Bangladesh, Kenya, S. Africa, Nigeria, Venezuela, people are fighting back because of bad governance and injustice.
The call by General Otafiire to the young people to stand up for their future has emboldened the youth is timely and has come to pass. Although others have implicated him in other corrupt scandals, he has come out to accept that corruption is causing economic inequalities and disparities that can spark instability and anarchy. He can be forgiven by the people for being pro-people. I’m convinced and starting to get worried that the President is being fed with wrong and false intelligence. The people who feed him with information are trained not to annoy him, therefore, the information he gets is doctored. He is fed on refined information that fits in his psyche for impressive purposes.
These young schooled citizens who are unemployed, underwent through pain to achieve their educational goals, had their parents sell family property, unfortunately, they are now stuck, with no headway because of corruption. Uganda’s economy is challenging, it’s in the doldrums, the bigger population is left out. Things started going wrong in the late 1980s when the IMF and World Bank imposed on government of Uganda an experimental economic structural adjustment reform programs and policies that government itself embraced before conducting a research to determine their viability and practicality, this was the birth of corruption.
Government was rushed to implement the programs and policies of liberalization to privatize the economy by selling off government parastatals at give away prices for no value. They never took in considerations how the new changes would impact negatively on the poor majority and ever since, there have not been any reforms to incorporate the majority of poor needs. The economic disparities are alarming. The currency has remained ever weak and has never recovered since the currency reform that was conducted in 1987. The young people are not playing with fire but corruption itself is fire. It’s burning them. The economy is exploitative and crippling them. It’s an economy only for a few rich ones, it does not provide a service delivery to the majority, there is uneven distribution wealth. There is nothing more painful than being unemployed after graduation and as a result of desperation, they are fired up to show their anger, and to demonstrate, is a constitutional right, not bad manners.
Therefore, Ugandans deserve answers from the NRM government, or else this has become a bad signal in the coming general elections. Ugandans are just seeking for a stable future, an accountable leadership that listens, cares about what the citizens say and want, not threats as if they are squatters in their own country because this is their only country and they are the owners.
The trust between the people and the government is fading away. This has reached dangerous levels. I appeal to the NRM leadership to look itself in the mirror and make necessary reflections, corrections and reforms in the governance of the mother country before things go wrong. NRM needs to make renewals by devolving power. Power is over-centered and vested in one person. In such a situation, the chances of making wrong decisions remain high. It is dangerous for a mass political Party to rely on the ideas of an individual because in life no one has a monopoly on knowledge. Knowledge is a diversity of ideas and it comes from different people. The President has to learn and accept that even a poor and an ordinary person can have a good ideas. Imagine if good ideas were only vested in a few people, then what would happen if they passed on? God was not stupid to create reproduction process. It was done purposely for continuity and diversity. That’s why everyday clever people are born and every day clever die.
Example, Hon.Sewungu suggested that having 4 lanes on a road can reduce accidents was not childish thinking. As Uganda is moving to the middle status, we should even need 6 Lane roads. Its not an offense for having a diversity of ideas. It is healthy not to depend on one person for the vision of the country. Allow people to freely express themselves. There is need to improve on Party internal checks and balances to reduce and avoiding making mistakes in the future. Collective leadership is fine for making decisions.
We understand the love and passion President has on power. Mr. Museveni has his eyes on the Seat of power, 24/7. This has made him loose his original patriotic and revolutionary composure and has made him get concerned that any form of demonstration that erupts, is meant to remove him from power. These consequences for overstaying in power have become a burden for both the NRM and Uganda. Many members in the NRM are in fear of expressing themselves freely and openly not to annoy and offend the leadership just like in the North Korea.
The President is out of touch with reality about how the common person lives. He has to shift his political strategy and come down to the rural areas to interface and talk to the ordinary people to understand and have a feeling of how people how people are suffering with this economy, people have sold their family properties to educate their kids. These kids after graduation remain unemployed. There is also child poverty in schools. Kids go hungry in government schools without meals. To be sincere and honest, the responsibility of feeding kids in government schools is the sole responsibility of a planning government. Mr. President people are badly off just like when you went to the bush. It was because of desperate reasons such as bad governance then, that prompted you to start war and this bad governance can be a je da vu that can lead us back to anarchy. Think about those times in the early 70s and 80s.
Lack of government will to fight corruption will only force more people onto the streets. We are yet to see more protests if the issue of thieves is not handled expeditiously. And these protests are organic and growing day by day.
Threats will only exacerbate them. Dialogue is the way forward. Remove the rotten tomatoes and throw them in the bin of waste and save and reserve your oceans of young voters. This is just the beginning and unless the President unchains himself from the powerful corrupt, we are yet to see more.
Parliament’s silence: wondering why Parliament is quiet on issues of corruption in its face. Failure not to debate on allegations that have been slapped in its face! Some big questions of the day are, can NRM survive and thrive without corruption? Is the President siding with the rotten tomatoes to shoot his own Bazukulu and the underprivileged? We have to learn to be sensitive to people’s cries. How can a country that has reached middle-income status fail to feed its school-going kids? These things do not need rocket science, it’s about patriotism frugality, and good planning. Please, my President, retract the threats of fire. These are your voters. Your creation. The current challenges are yours, let me remind you once called on Ugandans to increase their families by reproducing more, so that we can have a big market for ourselves and said in Luganda, “Muzaale, okusomesa kwange! Naye kati abantu bazaade, naye emilimo tewali, nokulyala emere kumasomelo aga government teli” We have reached this far for 40 years in power. We in the NRM should instead appreciate our voter’s generosity not threaten them with fire, finally, have we allowed selflessness, patriotism, good governance, and integrity to be overtaken by selfishness and greed?
Paul Polly Mugoya, concerned citizen. Former Chairman FDC Greater Sironko District, former Chairman Elders Forum, BCU., former UPM Youth leader Bugisu, FRONASA veteran, NRM National Delegate/NRM Opinion leader.
